Slavery to Liberation- The African American Experience, 2019a

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Black Health and Healthcare After the Civil War
Poor health continued to afflict African Americans in the war's aftermath. At least one
million suffered or died from diseases like smallpox. 26 Due to high rates of poverty,
many could not afford proper medical care, and those who could, experienced
discrimination from predominantly White physicians. This poor treatment, plus the
history and continued experimentation on Black bodies by White doctors, resulted in a
lasting distrust of the medical field. As a result, many Black Americans still relied on
Black folk practitioners and midwives. 27 Health problems had other significant effects
that affected future generations. On top of other issues like racial discrimination, health
problems made it difficult to acquire land and wealth, and prevented mobility. Even
after the war, many African Americans remained stuck in the South; over 90% of
African Americans still lived in the South at the end of the nineteenth century. 28
After the Civil War, African Americans made some gains in the medical field. The
son of former slaves, Robert Tanner Freeman became the first African American to
graduate with a doctorate in dental surgery. Freeman apprenticed under a White
dentist, and after an initial rejection from Harvard, which refused to admit Black
students, he and another student—George Franklin Grant—were admitted to Harvard
Dental School in 1867. Freeman graduated in 1869 and set up a practice in his home
city of Washington, D.C. 29 Freeman's classmate, Grant, became Harvard's first Black
faculty member. Grant was a pioneer in the care of patients with congenital cleft
26
Downs, Sick from Freedom.
27
Byrd and Clayton, "Race, Medicine, and Healthcare in the United States," 319.
28
T.D. Logan, "Health, Human Capital, and African American Migration Before
1910," Explorations in Economic History, 46:2 (2009), 169–185.
29
Winston Benjamin, "Robert Tanner Freeman," BlackPast.org, 2017,
http://www.Blackpast.org/aah/freeman-robert-tanner-1846-1873, last accessed July 11,
2019.